I'll share a personal story I don't often tell. My son was taken by CPS when he was 4. His preschool called CPS because he had a dime size bruise on his temple. We didn't have an explanation for it. He's a hyperactive four year with ADHD for fuck sake! CPS opens a case, they don't do anything other than come to the home make sure it's safe and talk to us to make sure we're not scumbags. They give us the all clear but are required to keep a case open or something. A few months later, they call CPS again because he had a bruise on his hand we couldn't explain. Um. He's FOUR. Every parent I talked to said their kids are covered in bruises none of them can explain. Since I have no explanation for this bruise (that I still have not see evidence of to this day) they take him into custody. I have a steady job, no criminal record, two parents in the clean home and they took him over two unexplained bruises. I have bruises I can't even explain and you expect me and or my hyperactive four year told to explain them all to you?? I sent him to school that day and all was well as far as I knew.
So we fight with them and they won't budge. They put him in a strange foster home and arrange for us to go to court a couple WEEKS later. There's nothing we can do. We get a lawyer but we have to go to court. Well the lawyer that showed up wasn't the one that was talking to the CPS person originally and felt she couldn't take the case because she didn't know it well enough. Court date # 1 wasted. Also worth noting that at this point I still have not been provided documentation of this bruise and the pathologist at the local hospital they had examine him, a supposed 'expert' on child abuse got a hearty laugh from my lawyer and my GF's (we had to hire separate lawyers for some reason) because he's a known quack in CPS's pocket.
We go to court again a week later or something and the original lawyer is sick and doesn't show up. Didn't even call to tell anyone. Court date # 2 wasted.
Show up to court.. judge never shows up. Yup. No judge. Rumor is that he left to go golfing. The state has a shortage of judges and they are overworked and they basically do whatever they want according to my lawyer. They go to lunch and never come back, go golfing, whatever. No one does anything. That's 3.
COME BACK AGAIN and the previous case runs too late and we can't get in. STRIKE FOUR. It's been over a month now that my son has been in foster care with strangers. We have supervised weekly visits with him at the CPS office during this time and he doesn't understand what's going on. Crying to come home thinking he's done something wrong.
Since we've now wasted weeks and hours and hours sitting in court doing nothing they decide to compromise and let him live with grandma until we complete their obligations. They have no evidence of any abuse and the court would have likely thrown out the case but they of course can't admit that.
Like someone else said down below, they required parenting classes and therapy. Oh, but there aren't any parenting classes that don't cost shitloads of money or don't conflict with my work schedule or take months to complete. So we wait. and wait. We keep meeting with therapists and CPS and time just ticks away. Despite them finding no evidence of abuse or neglect and being totally compliant with them they won't return him until we do parenting classes. Maybe they should fucking offer them themselves if they're going to make this a requirement!! After months of this bullshit our therapist gives us like printouts to read each week for a couple months and then some kind of stupid test and they call it good enough and then we still have to wait weeks before he can come home because of red tape. All together he was gone maybe six months. Because of two unknown bruises on a crazy toddler. Oh and the final time we went to court me and our lawyer finally got a transcript of their reports, which were supposed to be given to us the first time and they just took every little thing they could and blew it out of proportion and straight up fabricated lies about us.
I'm shaking right now just typing this. That was three years ago. I don't know how I kept it together.